With nothing better to do with my time, I decided to be mildly outraged.

“What is this, communist China?”

Educated folk might smirk at this bit of hyperbole, but I was just being facetious. Because obviously that Verizon store wasn’t China– I would know, I once lived there for a while and became something of an expert on the fabulousness that is Chinese culture. Think it’s just fortune cookies and karate? Think again. I give you…

An Exotic Land of Pink Polos

There was a period in high school where it became very trendy for jock guys to don the color pink– perhaps this was the first entry of that annoying “irony” that hipsters are so fond of. Regardless, that trend has taken hold in China and hunkered down for the long haul. Fun fact: There are 1.357 billion people living in China. 814,200,000 of them are men. 608,198,011 of those men are currently wearing pink polos.

A Liberated World of Male Midriffs

Gender inequality is a very real thing, all over the world. This is never more obvious than when a wave of heat hits China and the men begin lifting their shirts up to aerate their sweaty bits. Are we women allowed to follow suit? Heavens, no. We must maintain our modesty. Unless, of course, you’re one of the women in the porn movies that the upper left guy is nonchalantly selling in his little shop.

Where True Love Means Coordinated Wardrobes

I developed a lot of survival skills whilst living overseas, and one of the most important was the ability to take photos of people from behind. Now, here in ‘Murica families do tend to wear color coordinated outfits for family portrait day– but in China, it’s just another way of saying “I choose you.” This can be pulled off by mixing and matching various shades, or by keeping everything perfectly ordered, down to the shoes. And when a youngin comes along, it doesn’t have to ruin everything. No, you can just make it a triple and be as perfect as the little Panda family below. The guy on the bottom right was just a snazzy dresser that deserved an honorable mention for his Skittles-like ensemble.

While I’m being mildly offensive, let me list three of my favorite things about China:

1. They don’t have time zones. Time is just time is just time. The government says so.

2. If it reaches a certain temperature of heat, laborers don’t have to work outside because its dangerous. But it’s never ever ever gotten that hot. Ever. The government says so.

3. You don’t get to choose your college major. It’s based on your test scores, because they’re the best indication of what you should do with the rest of your life. Don’t want to be a mechanic? Too bad. The government says so.

Communist regimes are definitely funny. I remember when I was in Vietnam, I would post photos and whatnot on facebook– later I’d look at them and the text had been altered. Like… badly translated versions of what I’d said. Weird.

Can’t say my site was ever flagged, but I have to congratulate you on that achievement. Never heard of it before.

Hard to answer the unethical picture question. We seem to do it all the time without asking for permission, so it probably depends on the people involved. I know in terms of Comic Conventions it’s best to ask before taking a picture. Though I’ve only been to one convention and didn’t have a camera. Was too busy getting swag.

I’ve only ever been to Israel as far as foreign countries. I wouldn’t call it amusing, but one area required that the girls in the tour walked separately from the guys. They also had to be in long skirt dresses and I think the guys had to have their arms covered. In the USA, there’s odd stuff everywhere. It’s like each area has its own tics and oddities. Generational trends are the ones that get my attention. I come from the backwards hat trend, but I can’t wrap my head around the low-riding pants one today. Both seem to have been met with the same level of disdain by older generations.

It’s interesting how every single generation thinks its youths are going to destroy the world/culture/whatever. And! Yeah, I remember complying with cultural expectations as a female in Dubai. At least the first time around. Second time I was like SCREW YOUR CULTURE, LOOK AT MY ELBOWS. But that’s just because I’m intolerant and don’t like having men knock me over so they can get a better seat on a bus.

It is interesting. Though I’m having a hard time believing the one that is permanently grafted to their phone won’t do some damage. Standing behind a bunch of teens and hearing them say the word ‘hashtag’ before another word as if they speak in tweets . . . I don’t get it.

I don’t think I’d do well in that area. Sounds like chivalry would be illegal too.

I know. I think the same thing sometimes… but then I try and tell myself that its always been this way. I’ll still be saying that when they euthanize me at 42 for not being able to properly operate an iPhone 23.

Just today I got a refer from some site like “lovesexylingerie.com” or something. They’ve obviously been looking at my super flattering instagram photos from the gym (still holding out for you as my sugar momma, btw).

Interesting. I will definitely check that. Then again I do fear for the young eyes… there are quite a few teenagers who follow (hey guys!) and I’m always like… oh dear lord, I am assisting in your corruption.

That was a hilarious post! Absolutely loved it.
Actually, I don’t think anything in public is off-limits when it comes to a camera….there is just varying degrees of tactful behavior.
I’ve lived in the USA all of my life, but I’m hoping to have the opportunity to become more “culturized” (Apparently that is not a word, since WP is trying to correct it…), but luckily I have wonderful people like yourself to live vicariously through by reading about cultures in a blog posting 🙂

Haha culturized sounds like some mix between being shaken up and having probiotics put in you or something. Or perhaps I’m just hungry…

And! You will definitely have the opportunity. It’s crazy what can happen if you just decide to do it. That being said, it’s been waaaaayyy too long since I left the country. So I need to listen to my own words 😉

I thoroughly enjoyed your pictorial of China. When I was there, I was pregnant with my daughter. So all I could “enjoy” were the “delightful” smells of the city. My hyper-sensitive pregnant nose should have taken notes.

Oh man, I remember the smells. I can remember exactly what this one rusted metal wall looked like in Beijing, the day I arrived, because it was the first time I was assaulted with that special sewer smell.

And! When they finally decide to fire me, the first thing I’ll do is see how many of you guys’ websites I can access. For now… I’m too smart for that 😉

You blog is safe from my work filters. There are plenty of others that have been caught, sadly. It’s not unethical at all to take photos of strangers, especially when the only reason they are in the shot is because you were trying to take a picture of the landscape and they just popped in front of the camera 😉 😀

That blew my mind, the college thing– so different than over here. I was all stomping about like “the injustice!” But then its also interesting to think about how wise it is to let 18 year olds make a $40-$100k decision that dictates their career options. HMM.

My blog has never been restricted. And it’s loaded with vaginas, so that’s surprising.

I’ve never been able to fully come to a conclusion on the issue of whether photographing strangers is ethical or not. One of my all-time favorite photographers, Diane Arbus, used to always ask her subjects for permission first, and she’d get to know them. I say, “Ain’t nobody got time for dat”, but I admire her for doing it.

The Beijing Bikini, I like it! I’m really just jealous. It’s hard to remember right now, in the arctic chill, but when summer hits… I’d kill to lift to tuck my shirt up like that. I’m pretty sure it would result in the same amount of disturbed surprise I felt the first time I saw it though.

What amusing cultural trends have you noticed in your own country, or abroad?
-sweet jesus in heaven..im already squatting in your blog’s comment section, don’t even get me started with the weird things i noticed about filipino culture trends..(but out of curiosity, is there a character limit/count in the comments section?wehehehe..nah..jk..)

How unethical is it to take photos of strangers?
-again, that is a REALLY open ended question that brings to mind a lot of things..unpleasant things..ahaha..but in general, no, its not unethical in my opinion..

Has your site ever been flagged for inappropriate content?
-no..but there’s this one weird story when i was a student doing a hospital practicum, where my work computer was flagged because apparently, my username was caught by the filter to be accessing “inappropriate material”..i was doing my charting about a patient with dementia adamant about getting a “perm” before her surgery and before i knew it, i was being dragged down to the admins office with my instructor, preceptor, hospital admin, and the IT guy..
i insisted to look at the program used to filter the keylogs..it turns out, the word “perm” was flagged as similar to the word “porn”..i gave the IT guy a schooling on how to do his job..and it’s not like it was complicated computer speak that i was talking about, it was a program where you basically double click it to run it, enter the parameters, click on “run” and you just let it sit dormant in the background..the idiot just set the wrong parameters..it only took me 2 minutes to figure it out and im not even that good with computers..
i looked at the hospital admin. dead serious and was like: “if my school kicks me out and i end up 150k in the hole in student loans because of this nonsense, im coming down here and taking HIS job (i pointed at the IT guy) and you better be there to negotiate whether you want to pay me 5 times or 10 times what you’re paying him, on top of the big fat bonus you’re gonna be giving me and the lawyer im gonna get my dad to get for me..”
hospital admin laughed, IT guy apologized, and i still got reprimanded by my instructor and then the Dean of Nursing the next day, this time, for sassing at the hospital admin..
lol..

PS: im also Ben Lee..that’s when i post comments while im in my work computer and too lazy to dig up my wordpress username/pass, so i just comment as a guest..lol..

Hahahaha what an idiot. And judging by the swift response they were probably like “ooo! We got one!” For purely research-based reasons I went ahead and google imaged “perm” and there were absolutely no naked bodies.

PS: I remember you mentioning that in an FB message 🙂 I am creepy like that.

sorry, that was a bad choice of words..i didnt mean it to sound like i typed the word “perm” and i was dragged down to the confrontation ahora mismo..more like, it took a few days, as in, i typed in the offensive word, it got flagged by the program, then it showed up in their scheduled reviews of the scans..then i got roped in a few days later..but i like your version better..ahaha..
i was reading an idiot article before, where they coined a rule that basically states if its an activity, or something, there IS a porn version of it floating around somewhere in the internet..something like that..really curious how twisted can you be to be able to make a porn version of “perm”..but to be fair, the japanese did a number on octopus/octopi? and other tentacled animals..brrrr..don’t wanna think about it..i dont think they really recovered from hiroshima and nagasaki..(too much?lol..)

pardon the brain dead blathering on my part, i just logged in at work, its slow and the coffee machine is broken..dagnabit..

Did you dislike China or do you think some things are pretty good there too? albeit there are cultural biases regarding on what you should do in life almost everywhere some are right up in your face as China and some are well less up in your face but tacitly reminded every second you live so you know it 😛

Oh no, I didn’t dislike it 🙂 And that whole experience– to sound cheesy– changed my life. I just think its interesting to note things like that, and I always love hearing things that people notice when they come to the states for the first time. Sometimes I try to strip my brain of all its conditioning and imagine what this place must seem like… but I find it far too frightening, so I immediately stop. Ha.

you know what really made an impact with me coming to canada for the first time? food..this continent is literally the land of plenty..its not like my family were starving back home and we came here on rafts..what i mean is, we were raised to look at food differently, and the way food is being treated here is a shocker to me..
my upbringing was to respect food, to enjoy it, experience it, and to benefit from it..
food that is prepared lovingly and patiently prepared, then enjoyed in an amiable manner with people you enjoy spending time with, a tool to make wonderful memories with, is something that should be impossible to find somewhere else, but is a commonplace occurence in the Philipines that you don’t think much of it until you leave the country and start missing the experience..
you have to respect it and treat it with the dignity it deserves, you don’t throw it away, waste is not encouraged, and you don’t help yourself to more than what you need, because you know that just a few minutes drive away from that nice restaurant you’re eating in, is the slums, where people are gonna be dining on what would most likely be yours or your tablemate’s scraps scavenged from the dumpster..
then i move to another country where there are contests on binge eating! and you go to any restaurant of your choice and a single serving is enough to feed you for 2 days! maria santissima! and that was just my reaction eating at an airport denny’s for the first time..imagine me almost fainting when they slammed a plate of ribs in front of me while at a montana’s that no human being have a right to consume on his own, but apparently is the norm here..
my friends still laugh at me and my insistence on ordering kid’s sized portions whenever we eat out..but, whatevs..lol..
so i thought, this is how one side lives, i’d like to see how the homeless eats in this country..just last year, i participated in a program during thanksgiving (canadian)..its a charity that provides food and shelter for homeless people..we went driving all over downtown vancouver handing massive and lovingly prepared turkey dinners to the homeless people..
i handed a dinner to this one guy, and as we were pulling out, i saw him in the rearview mirror throw the dinner to the ground!
i exited the car and asked him why he did that..he said that the dinner didn’t look good, turkey looks dry, there’s not enough gravy, he doesn’t like potatoes or any kind of vegetables for that matter, and that he’s craving for a mcdonald’s anyway..
(btw, this was not a turkey dinner mass produced in an industrial kitchen..this was an amazing meal cooked and patiently prepped by dozens of volunteers..we were operating under the motto that if we won’t eat it, then we won’t serve it..)

That’s interesting. It really is crazy how huge our portions are over here, and how much food we throw away. I NEVER finish my food at restaurants and I know I’m not the only one.

And I think it can depend on the sort of homeless population you’re working with, for sure. Some places have so many resources that someone can afford to be picky. Other places are more desperate. I think I’d prefer to live in a community where we feed our homeless people well enough that they feel picky about it HAHA. Of course, there should always be gratitude 😉

Mmmmm. Talking about amusing cultural trends is pretty much my favorite topic ever, being the product of growing up in Japan with American parents (I have a long winded story involving seaweed and chocolate doughnuts that is slightly vomit inducing but illuminating of the confusion that is the result of being a third culture kid). BUT, I won’t today because I think taking pictures of strangers is the best ever! When I lived in India, we would call it tourist hunting when we took pictures of white people inappropriately dressed. Shorts! Tank tops! The horror! But so much laughter. Also, in high school the big thing was to get pictures of people in mullets. Also a good time.

It’s so interesting! Because I saw it A LOT. Especially the people who legit look the same… I mean… it must be some sort of cute couple thing. I’ll have to write about what I learned from watching cheesy Southeast Asian pop music videos (on 12 hour bus rides at max volume). Love is intense.

Hmm I think taking photos of strangers is ok from a distance here and if up close I will ask if it’s ok which usually they are very happy to pose but in Japan you have to be a bit careful when on trains and such. There is a slight issue here of pervy men eyeballing up girls skirts and some use cameras. I took a photo once on a train and three people turned to look at me with not happy faces, it was a selfie ffs! Stupid Android camera clicks when it takes a photo.

No way. Yikes, I cannot imagine. And how could that sort of photo really be all that sexy? I’ll bet its just getting off on the act of doing it. I think I’d start duct taping random frightening shite to my inner thighs then wearing short skirts on the train, just inviting them in…. but thats me.

I HATE when the camera click goes off! Even when you’re doing a screenshot and then people are looking at you like “do I need to kill you?”

Interesting– so its not illegal. I still feel like its… shady, you know? Especially when people do it to mock someone. Then again, I of course do mock people but I think its not that bad because I’m only mocking their purple pants which might be different than a bearded lady, but still. I DONT KNOW. I feel like if I went out of the house looking like crap and caught someone sneaking a photo of me, I would cry. Or if I had a mentally ill family member who did something odd and someone photographed it I would become homicidal.

We’ve had a number of exchange students, so I always get a rundown on odd American customs. Especially odd customs that have to do with high school – which seems like an oxymoron, but okay.

Thinks like school sports, marching bands, lockers, school dances, school cafeterias, toga parties, are all oddities to kids who come here from South America, Europe and Asia. It’s fun to ask kids about their lists.

When we were in Guatemala, there were cannons shot off at 5 am and other odd times during the day. When cannon fire wakes you up in a third-world country you rather panic, but it turns out that how they celebrate birthdays in Guatemala – by shooting off a cannon at the exact time of day you entered the world every year. Charming, right?

Somehow I think you are stuck between two generations Aussa. My generation requires permission for everything- we are very info conscious. The younger generation – teens- share info at an alarming rate and think that whatever they can see and think or hear can be transmitted to the world as is their right. The interblogs and assorted other information exchange methods are their new eyes and ears and they are incensed at any interfenrence. Personally, i have some qualms about that, although i will acknowledge that my generation is a bit too uptight about sharing. I suspect that each person has their own tolerance of information exchange. I overheard a conversation the other day where a gentleman in his 50’s was saying that he had never used a computer to pay bills or access his bank account as he didn’t feel it was safe. I have trusted sites that I have no issue sharing with (banks, big retailers, work related sites, etc) and others where I never give any personal info. i haven’t had any abuse of my info yet.

Speaking of strange cultural values, did you know that China has very strict laws about copyright and patents? i studied that for a bit, and they actually have a law that allows for execution in extreme cases. And they have never ever enforced those laws to the point wher they are the knock-off king of the world. No ones tech or data is safe in China.

I definitely feel like I’m caught between two generations. I was about 12 when the internet came out. That’s like prime tech time for a little brain. I immediately went for hacking, but its long passed me now. It’s hard to imagine what future generations will think about life pre-internet. Probably the way we feel about life pre-Industrial Revolution. Kind of like “wow how did they survive?” Haha ridiculous.

I know a woman named Zsuzs who is so anti-pink that when the purple tuft in her hair began fading toward pink, she mixed some of Briana’s purple Mac pigment in with some blue hair dye to avoid humiliating herself. It apparently worked quite well. I don’t see what the big deal is about pink. I mean, sure, Aaron Schock did look totally gay in his pink gingham shirt, but that boy would look gay in a police uniform. Also, there’s a pink-haired girl at the other end of our building who I think is kinda cute.
So Verizon thinks that reading this blog will corrupt your mind, curve your spine, and lose the war for the allies? I haven’t noticed any weakening of my moral fiber since I started reading it…

That’s good to hear, Doug. There may come a time when I need you to testify to that last fact in court. Be on alert.

And! I’ve read somewhere about the feeling toward pink in other cultures and its not necessarily equated with femininity. I try to look at it sometimes and imagine whether I would have made that assumption on my own… like, is there anything inherently feminine about it? Not sure. Yeah, there are pink flowers. But there are all sorts of colors of flowers and I’m sure you could find plenty of frightening pink things. Like those scary monkeys’ asses.

In the Old World, pink was viewed as a shade of red- a royal color that was only appropriate for boys. Blue was seen as dainty, and feminine. So… clothes for babies? Pink for boys, blue for girls. As proof of this, my father served a Belgian-French mission (same mission Mitt Romney served, apparently) and… can’t remember who Dad said sent the clothes, but I had some pink clothes as a baby boy.

Incidentally, I’d read that it was the Nazis and their dehumanizing branding of whom they considered undesirables that contributed to the reversal of the trend. The association of the pink triangle to gay culture is literally from Hitler’s label system, and apparently the Nazis also dressed their prisoners of homosexual orientation in pink. Stupid, really.

I like it when my husband wears his pink shirt, just like my daughters, it makes his hair blonder and his eyes bluer. I am such the smitten kitten.
I truly detest the sexism involved in clothing and modesty. Swimming is easier without a top and why is it that when there are special occasions, I’m expected to freeze to death in a ball gown while my husband sports three layers? Tip of the iceberg, that!

Right? Oh my gosh, seriously. I go looking for a Christmas party dress and they’re all sleeveless or backless. Is the venue of the party going to keep their house at 80 degrees? So ridiculous. And I would love to go to a topless beach. Granted– I’m scared to go to any beach, period. But a topless one sounds interesting. And I don’t like clothes, so win.

In England where I live now lots of me go publicly topless the minute there is a ray of sunshine… even on the subway. The worse the man’s tattoos are, the more likely he is to observe this behaviour.

When it comes to British people (whether you are a born one or like me you become one through grit, determination and refusal to go home), we are very committed to the art of queuing. British people will form an orderly queue in any circumstances without being asked. Failure to observe queuing etiquette is probably the one thing everyone would agree was worth reinstating the death penalty for. Of course we would never say that though… because we’re British. We would just tut disapprovingly.

In South Africa, where I grew up the men are also BIG on the pink polos, especially with stripes on them. They are very, very bad.

Interesting about pink polos in South Africa! And I love that Brits queue. There is no queuing in China. NONE. Not even at fast food place, or at the checkout line of a grocery store. It’s all just sharp elbows and stomping on feet and thrusting forward.

Is it true that “queuing up” is a British cultural art? Personally, I’d like to see some more of that in the States– most people I meet try NOT to be rude about what we call lining up (i.e. they will ask where the end of the line is, and so on), but we could just use a little more structure to the practice, y’know?

We take queuing very seriously and it’s very structured with rules around what is an isn’t socially acceptable. Cutting in line in Britain is like getting your dick out in church. And even when it looks like there is no physical queue, everyone knows their place and when their turn is.

Apparently some Australians did a social experiment in London where a bunch of them queued up outside a random door and waited to see what happened and people just started lining up behind them because if there is a queue for something it must be good, right? Hahaha!

Gah I wish I was more educated on the topic and then I would definitely insult him. He’s probably reading this right now. I REALLY hope he decides to threaten my workplace in retaliation. We really deserve to be threatened and punished.

Bwahahaha… so, does College Humor and the ERB boys have North Korea after them, yet? Huge swaths of the Internet have made fun of Kim Jong Il and Un in measured order. Look it up on YouTube… hilarious.

Ha! How funny. Now I feel so rejected that they haven’t asked me… juuuust kidding 😉 I feel like most of the “cold” emails I get from people wanting to advertise or guest post are these super serious political or travel related things. Psshhh

While you are in Hong Kong some of the taxi drivers will give you exact change back.It was a good feeling right.
While I was in a casino in South Africa , A guy said XXX on Black ,the black attendant smiled and said take me 😛 , I am more of an observer of the jobs people do in different places.
I love to see how people do their stuff.

And does that mean your website is loosing traffic because of restrictions !?

Haha I remember when I first came to self-hosted, I was talking to Julie, the woman who set up the tech side of things for me, and she was like… “yeah, I don’t think Google AdSense or anything like that will work on your site… because hooker.”

Taking photos of strangers and posting them online without their permission is actually illegal in Germany! You can photograph people if they’re just part of a crowd and you’re actually trying to photograph something else (but who decides what a crowd is?!) but can only take photos of specific people with their permission.

I take photos quite frequently at my grandchildren’s school. It’s an age thing in my case. I’m so humored by some of the things that young parents wear. It isn’t the scantily clad ones I care about, it’s the odd combinations or really strange shoes. I have to sneak, so mine are usually from the rear, as well. I don’t have the good stories to add to my collection, though. 🙂

Aussa, you lascivious tart. How could anyone restrict you? Not possible. I have been remiss in checking in on you–I had knee surgery–total knee replacement. Forgive me for slacking. I was self-absorbed. Your site is magnificent. You certainly have attained star quality. What’s your secret? Who let you into China? Ok. Listen, I’m really proud of you. It looks like you’re doing great. Restrictions won’t hurt you, sweetie. It’s like wearing a corset while you write. Love to hear from you. Lucy

[…] There will come a moment where I’ll decide to impress everyone with my tenuous grasp of the Spanish language. Even though I know better, there will be alcohol and then I’ll be all “My nanny was Hispanic,” and “I used to go to Juarez every summer” and “I took 97,000 hours of Spanish in college.” Then I’ll open my mouth and try to make words and people will crowd around to point and stare the same way they did when I tried to use chopsticks in China. […]